Star Blazers Teaser: Japanese Anime to Live-Action Film

Published 5 years ago
by
Paul Young
, Updated March 3rd, 2014 at 6:28 am,

I remember growing up as a kid in the 80’s and absolutely loving Japanese animation. Shows like Voltron, Robotech and TranzorZ, with his partner Aphrodite and her boobie missile 1 and boobie missile 2, were among some of my favorites to watch. I guess my tastes changed as I got older, because the newer anime from the ’90s on just didn’t appeal to me very much.

I’m not an expert in Japanese anime by any means and I really only followed the mainstream stuff, so when the teaser trailer for the cartoon Space Battleship Yamato (known as Star Blazers in the U.S.) hit the web and instantly picked up steam in the movie blog world, I was intrigued to see what all the fuss was about. After watching the 32 second teaser, I was left thinking, “Did I miss something?”

If you are like me and not familiar with Space Battleship Yamato, then here is a quick recap of the series: Like most Japanese anime, Space Battleship Yamato skewed more adult, including profanity, drinking, and sexual references. However, most if not all of that was removed and/or toned down for the American version of the show, Star Blazers. The story revolves around a space battleship built from the World War II remains of the battleship Yamato and how the captain (who is apparently drunk the majority of the time) and crew fight to save the planet from the evil Gamilon.

Watch the teaser below and let us know what you think.

Like I said previously, I was left feeling somewhat underwhelmed by that teaser. The shots they choose to include really don’t give a viewer with no knowledge of the show a chance to understand what is going on, and I’m still scratching my head at the choice of music at the end.

However, I must give director Takashi Yamazaki – who also directed Returner – complete credit for sticking to miniatures and practical effects. Except for the shot of the ship firing all of its lasers at once, I didn’t see any CGI in the teaser. Maybe it was a budget issue and CGI was just too expensive? Regardless, I’m glad to see someone finally doing a space movie that isn’t overly wrought with CGI effects.

Japanese pop star Takuya Kimura (Howl’s Moving Castle) plays the main male character Sasumu Kodai and actress Koyuki plays the main female lead, although I couldn’t locate her character’s name anywhere.

What did you think of the teaser and are you more familiar with the Star Blazers series than I am?

Just so you guys didn’t think I was making up the Aphrodite Boobie Missiles, here’s an image for you.

The music at the end was no surprise to me. As a fan of the show when it hit american shores in the 80′s, I recognized the theme music to the american version. This looks fantastic by the way…of course anything I see will have to be dubbed because my Japanese is a bit rusty…..really looking forward to seeing it though no matter how much I have to read!

Never saw the TV series but I vaguely remember a feature film thrown together from various episodes called Space Cruiser Yamato.

Having just waded through a 20-disc box set of Battlestar Galactica, maybe I’m just obsessed but I’m getting a definite BSG vibe from this teaser: the old “switches & levers”-type bridge, the massive barrage of lasers, the woman at 0.21 with a Colonial fighter pilot helmet and neck ring.

Paul, are you sure that wasn’t all CGI? There wasn’t anything that stood out to me as an obvious miniature, and in this day and age I’d have thought the opposite was true regarding the expense of shooting actual models vs CGI.

I can’t see the trailer here at work, but when I was a kid I used to run home to watch Star Blazers. I absolutely loved the show and I actually have a few video tapes (!) of the series I bought in the early 90′s. I just hope that they use the wave-motion gun, that thing was just freakin’ AWESOME!!

Yes!!! Starblazers was my all time favorite show as a child. I had (and still have) models of most of the ships and the entire second season on VHS. The trailer looks just about perfect, and the old familiar theme music kicking in at the end just about made by fanboy heart burst.

Had an opportunity to pick up the entire series on VHS a few years back. Could kick myself for not doing it. Then again I recently finished up the “Crest/Banner of the Stars” series and have found it somewhat overrated. More for the dialog and to some extent the story. Visuals, music, and a twist on Science Fiction conventions of space battle kept my interest at least into the second half of “Banners.” A WWII battleship sounds like a hefty piece of iron take to space. Alien power source right? Another Anti-Ice…

I remember watching this when i was younger and the concept of it being live action is a great idea for this program (and robotec for that matter)but please dont tell me i have to read subtitles i think the japanise studios and hollywood should have gotten together on this one and added both styles together … i think the outcome would be alot better

the show is called battle ship yamato one of the worst anime i by far have ever seen. if the want to do a amazing live action film it has to be gundam but it should not be to the same story as the anime.

I remember watching this as a kid too. Just went to youtube to catch some clips and bring back some memories. Stuff I had forgotten, like how at the end of each episode they’d list the number of days left for the Star Force to complete their mission. Gave a rather simplistic, but effective (for a kid) way to keep up the suspense.

Oh, and I got tingles seeing a high quality live action version of the wave gun charging up.

Seeing parts of the original shows that the story hasn’t exactly aged well. Probably more interest for nostalgia purposes these days for me than anything else, but those were fun times.

That’s not to say that the story was beyond hope however. Given the right scriptment, I wouldn’t mind seeing the right director making an American version. Probably won’t ever happen, as Star Blazers seems to be the ‘also-ran’ of early Japanimation. Voltron and Gundam had bigger fan bases. (And yes, I was a Voltron fan too, so I hope they don’t mess up that movie.)

For the less informed readers of this article, five of the most influential Japanese anime series to ever come to the United States and other countries, which “opened the door for other shows were Astro Boy (o.k.a. Tetsuwan Atom*), Kimba the White Lion (o.k.a. Jungle Emperor Taitei*) Speed Racer (o.k.a. Mach Go-Go-Go*), Battle of the Planets/G-Force (o.k.a. Gatchaman), and Star Blazers (o.k.a. Space Battleship Yamato)((NOTE: o.k.a.= originally known as, and *= possible spelling error unintentional)), and without them creating an interest in anime in general I seriously doubt anime like Gundam and even Pokemon would be available outside of Japan.
By the way, what’s with an image of The Irresponsible Captain Tylor anime’s ship the Soyokaze at the top of the article instead of the Yamato?
Also, let me set Mr. Young straight on something that really bothered me in his article before I finish.
In Space Battleship Yamato it wasn’t the Yamato’s captain who was drunk the majority of the time, it was the ship’s doctor, the captain was suffering from radiation poisoning and his old war injuries acting up because the radiation poisoning, which apparently killed the captain at the end of the first season, though the movie Final Yamato revealed it had actually put him in a near death coma for seasons two and three and the second through fourth movies.

Paul, not sure if you meant to use that ship or not. I think the Yamato/Argo would have been wiser. Okita?Avatar drunk all the time? Are you getting confused with the ships Doctor by chance?
Third, this teaser was made in Japan for them, by them. Yamato is as well know in Japan as Star Trek is here. It has A HUGE following there. So this teaser worked well for them. Just as the Teaser for Star Trek worked well. Fans here knew what it was. It was the Enterprise.
Enjoy it for what it is and try to learn some more about it. Being 43, and like you not, a fan of the 90s Anime. i cant wait for this to come out!

Ten tons of news, history, art, webcomics, product pics, analysis, and more can be found at starblazers.com! Check it out when you have some spare time, hopefully you’ll become addicted. I’ve been addicted for most of my life, and the more I dig the more I find. Starblazers.com is where I put everything I’ve learned.

I remember in elementary school kissing the tv because thought one of the crew of “Star Blazers” was such a hotty. I loved both that show and “Voltron” (which I got into later but had no idea they were Japanese.) My cousins showed me some series anime like “Akira” in middle school and high school.

I didn’t like to much of 90′s anime either, but I really didn’t see that much back then and what I did see left a poor impression. I only got back into anime in 2006 when I realized it was actually, quite good now. Series like Mushi Shi, Ergo Proxy and Nabari No Ou are quite well done, with interesting stories and great art.

Oh how I blather on, but you got me thinking of the old days, lol! I think the live action version has a sort of fake look to it that reminds me of Star Trek in the early nineties- I wouldn’t mind it as a series but for a film it looks a little…unrealistic.

So you didnt like Ninja Scroll, 8 Man After, Fatal Fury the Motion Picture, Street Fighter II the ANimated Movie?? All of those were 90s anime plus others I cant remember that further established anime into the US culture.

I finally was able to watch the trailer……and it looked awful. The brief glimpse of the wave-motion gun and the theme song was cool, but the rest just looks cheesy as hell. I WISH Hollywood would remake this so that it would at least LOOK cool. Maybe with an extended trailer it’ll bebetter, but right now this looks like it’s going straight to DVD.